¹ And Jacob called unto his sons, and said: gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the latter days.

² Assemble yourselves, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; And hearken unto Israel your father.

³ Reuben, thou art my first-born, my might, and the beginning of my strength; The pre-eminence of dignity, and the pre-eminence of power.

⁴ Boiling over as water, thou shalt not have the pre-eminence; Because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; Then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

⁵ Simeon and Levi are brethren; Weapons of violence are their swords.

⁶ O my soul, come not thou into their council; Unto their assembly, my glory, be not thou united; For in their anger they slew a man, And in their self-will they hocked an ox.

⁷ Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; And their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, And scatter them in Israel.

⁸ Judah, thee shall thy brethren praise: Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies; Thy father's sons shall bow down before thee.

⁹ Judah is a lion's whelp; From the prey, my son, thou art gone up: He stooped down, he couched as a lion, And as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?

¹⁰ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh come: And unto him shall the obedience of the peoples be.

¹¹ Binding his foal unto the vine, And his ass's colt unto the choice vine; He hath washed his garments in wine, And his vesture in the blood of grapes:

¹² His eyes shall be red with wine, And his teeth white with milk.

¹³ Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; And he shall be for a haven of ships; And his border shall be upon Sidon.

¹⁴ Issachar is a strong ass, Couching down between the sheepfolds:

¹⁵ And he saw a resting-place that it was good, And the land that it was pleasant; And he bowed his shoulder to bear, And became a servant under taskwork.

¹⁶ Dan shall judge his people, As one of the tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ Dan shall be a serpent in the way, An adder in the path, That biteth the horse's heels, So that his rider falleth backward.

¹⁸ I have waited for thy salvation, O Jehovah.

¹⁹ Gad, a troop shall press upon him; But he shall press upon their heel.

²⁰ Out of the Asher his bread shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties.

²¹ Naphtali is a hind let loose: He giveth goodly words.

²² Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a fountain; His branches run over the wall.

²³ The archers have sorely grieved him, And shot at him, and persecute him:

²⁴ But his bow abode in strength, And the arms of his hands were made strong, By the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, (From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel),

²⁵ Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee, And by the Almighty, who shall bless thee, With blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that coucheth beneath, Blessings of the breasts, and of the womb.

²⁶ The blessings of thy father Have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors Unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: They shall be on the head of Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

²⁷ Benjamin is a wolf that raveneth: In the morning she shall devour the prey, And at even he shall divide the spoil.

²⁸ All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

²⁹ And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

³⁰ in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a burying-place.

³¹ there they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah:

³² the field and the cave that is therein, which was purchased from the children of Heth.

³³ And when Jacob made an end of charging his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

¹ It happened after these things, that someone said to Joseph, "Behold, your father is sick." He took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

² Someone told Jacob, and said, "Behold, your son Joseph comes to you," and Israel strengthened himself, and sat on the bed.

³ Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me,

⁴ and said to me, 'Behold, I will make you fruitful, and multiply you, and I will make of you a company of peoples, and will give this land to your seed after you for an everlasting possession.'

⁵ Now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you into Egypt, are mine; Ephraim and Manasseh, even as Reuben and Simeon, will be mine.

⁶ Your issue, who you become the father of after them, will be yours. They will be called after the name of their brothers in their inheritance.

⁷ As for me, when I came from Paddan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the way, when there was still some distance to come to Ephrath, and I buried her there in the way to Ephrath (the same is Bethlehem)."

⁸ Israel saw Joseph's sons, and said, "Who are these?"

⁹ Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons, whom God has given me here." He said, "Please bring them to me, and I will bless them."

¹⁰ Now the eyes of Israel were dim for age, so that he couldn't see. He brought them near to him; and he kissed them, and embraced them.

¹¹ Israel said to Joseph, "I didn't think I would see your face, and behold, God has let me see your seed also."

¹² Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

¹³ Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him.

¹⁴ Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it on Ephraim's head, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands knowingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.

¹⁵ He blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God who has fed me all my life long to this day,

¹⁶ the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth."

¹⁷ When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. He held up his father's hand, to remove it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head.

¹⁸ Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father; for this is the firstborn; put your right hand on his head."

¹⁹ His father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know. He also will become a people, and he also will be great. However, his younger brother will be greater than he, and his seed will become a multitude of nations."

²⁰ He blessed them that day, saying, "In you will Israel bless, saying, 'God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh'" He set Ephraim before Manasseh.

²¹ Israel said to Joseph, "Behold, I am dying, but God will be with you, and bring you again to the land of your fathers.

²² Moreover I have given to you one portion above your brothers, which I took out of the hand of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow."